Aircraft industry of the USSRT
Write the first paragraph of your page here. History Interwar period The Grand Monarchy of Kazemostan had a small fleet of 47 aircraft at the onset of World War I, but had neither the design bureaus nor the capacity to design its own aircraft. In essence, this made it dependent on foreign companies for its aircraft, although certain spare parts could be made in specialist factories. This was the case in many of the Tabi’atstani states, with some not even having any aircraft to speak of. By the time of Leonid Ushakov’s communist revolution, the only Tabi’atstani state with any military aircraft was the Grand Monarchy of Kazemostan, which had a fleet of 21 Breguet 14 biplanes. The air force, which was considered the most radical of all the armed forces, defected to the revolutionaries and flew sorties against the Kazemostani Imperial Guards. After the revolution, the new communist government set about creating an indigenous aircraft industry. Free market competition between companies was thought to be wasteful and too capitalistic, so several different government-owned design bureaus were set up. These design bureaus would send their aircraft blueprints to the Tabi’atstani Politburo, which would hand these blueprints to factories for manufacturing if they were approved. The first indigenous Tabi’atstani airplane was the Kr-8, a biplane fighter aircraft designed by Valeri Yaropolkovich Krupin in early 1926. The Krupin Kr-8 had a plywood fuselage and was powered by an imported Napier Lion piston engine. On the 21st January 1928, the Kr-11 biplane flew for the first time. It was a full metal aircraft that on paper seemed very capable. However, it was prone to heavy landings and was soon pulled out of service after several crashes. Krupin was arrested on charges of industrial sabotage and was sentenced to death on the 22nd May 1928. On the 30th November 1928, Haroun Siavush Alinejad formed the Alinejad Design Bureau, and on the 17th May 1929, his first plane, the ADB-6 biplane fighter, flew for the first time. However, it was not adopted by the Tabi’atstani Air Force as biplanes were considered by the Tabi’atstani Politburo to be outdated and obsolete. Alinejad then designed the ADB-9, a large monoplane bomber. The ADB-9 was produced in small numbers, but Alinejad soon fell into obscurity after the first Soviet Polikarpov I-5 biplanes arrived in the USSRT in March 1932. The Tabi’atstani-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Technological Alliance and Cooperation signed on the 25th March 1938 allowed the license production of a wide range of Soviet aircraft as well as other military equipment. On the 12th February 1940, Hovhannes Zhirayr Kevorkian and Sevastyan Faddey Bogomolov formed the Kevorkian-Bogolomov (KeB) Design Bureau. Their first aircraft, the KeB-1, flew on the 29th April 1940. However, the aircraft was found to be difficult to control, and so a modified version, the KeB-3, was designed to remedy these problems. Meanwhile, on the 23rd March 1940, a rival aircraft designer, Vasya Isidorovich Lukov, formed the Lukov Design Bureau. Whilst the KeB Design Bureau was focused more on making fighter aircraft, Lukov decided to produce bomber and attack aircraft. His first aircraft design, the Lu-2, flew on the 16th May 1940, and was a dedicated attack aircraft. World War II Cold War After the end of World War II, USSRT design bureaus created several new aircraft with the help of Soviet technical help and captured German research. These aircraft were mainly designed to help Tabi'atstani scientists gain a better understanding of new aerodynamic theories and technologies such as jet engines, as well as to test new design ideas. In 1948, the TRAF announced a contract for a jet engine powered fighter aircraft to compete with the Soviet designed MiG-9. The Lukov Design Bureau offered an upgrade of its experimental Lu-10, whilst the KeB and Alinejad design bureaus developed new designs for the Air Force contract, these being the KeB-11 "Tufan" and Ali-19 respectively. Lukov at this point was better known for attack and bomber aircraft, and its Lu-10 design already seemed somewhat dated. As such, the go ahead was given for further development of the KeB-11 "Tufan" and the Ali-19. ADB was extremely grateful for this offer; its Ali-16 fighter had lost out in production quotas to the KeB-8 during the last years of the Second World War. In 1956, KeB developed without government contract the KeB-15. The concept was proposed as a trainer aircraft with possible close air support applications. Government approval was given to the project, and the KeB-15 first flew on the 10th December 1958, but in the end, only small numbers of the aircraft were built (roughly 200) as the government opted to import Czechoslovak Aero L-29 Delfin trainer aircraft. In 1961, the TRAF decided to procure an indigenous jet attack aircraft to replace its own obsolete aircraft. Both ADB and Lukov submitted their own designs. ADB offered the Ali-20 "Vashat" whilst Lukov offered its Lu-19 "Ateshkadeh". To the surprise of many, the TRAF accepted both designs, and approval was given to develop both aircraft. The KeB Design Bureau applied for its own attack aircraft design to be approved late in the autumn of 1962, but was still given approval by a cautiously interested TRAF. By the summer of 1963, all three designs had been built into prototypes, and on the 15th July 1963, the TRAF held a competition between them. Both the Ali-20 and Lu-19 performed well, and were accepted into service. Kevorkian-Bogomolov's KeB-18, however, was a complete disaster. Years of designing fighter aircraft meant that the design bureau had little experience with attack aircraft, and the KeB-18 was designed with a fighter plane philosophy. To help keep the plane agile whilst maintaining a high payload, KeB had decided to apply minimal armour rather than up-engine their design. Already at a disadvantage compared with the other two, the KeB design was also too fast, which would have made aiming extremely difficult in combat. An embarrassed KeB Design Bureau went back to the drawing board and began designing the KeB-20 in 1965. More of an interceptor than a regular fighter, the KeB-20 suffered from numerous redesigns and fell into development limbo. A tentatively finished design was finally released in 1968, although at this point it had to compete with the Soviet Sukhoi Su-15 Flagon and the Tupolev Tu-128. The KeB-20 made its first flight in 1971, and was finally introduced into TRAF service in 1975. With KeB thoroughly disgraced, both ADB and Lukov quickly picked up the slack. In 1966, Lukov presented its near finished Lu-25 (attack aircraft) and Lu-29 (fighter aircraft) designs to the TRAF. At the same time, ADB brought forward its design for the Ali-24 "Karta" AWACS aircraft. All three were accepted for further development, and were pressed into service roughly at the same time in late 1968. The Ali-24 would become particularly notable for being the first and only indigenous Tabi'atstani designed AWACS aircraft in history. The 1970s under President Rong Jiawang was a time of adventurous designs for the Tabi'atstani aerospace industry, and it was during this period that the Kevorkian-Bogomolov Design Bureau started developing its KeB-22 jet fighter. At this point, the KeB Design Bureau was in serious danger of being shut down, as its last three products had not been very successful, its previous attack aircraft design being a complete flop. The KeB-22 first flew on the 22nd April 1974. The test flight was going well, with TRAF officers present at the scene being impressed, when the aircraft was hit by a lightning strike due to a sudden storm. The pilot was able to land the aircraft, which had suffered significant, but not irreparable, damage. Luckily for KeB, the TRAF officers were suitably impressed with the aircraft, and it was approved for service in the Tabi'atstani Revolutionary Air Force after some minor modifications. This helped put KeB back on the map as a player in the Tabi'atstani aerospace industry. In 1972, ADB presented its Ali-27 bomber design for evaluation by the TRAF, which granted it permission to build a prototype. Although it was subsonic, the Ali-27 was a solid, reliable design to complement existing fleets of Tupolev Tu-16 strategic bombers, and it was accepted for service in late 1974. In 1975, the Lukov Design Bureau began work on designing a new supersonic strategic bomber aircraft, the Lukov Lu-37. Around the same time, the Tabi'atstani Revolutionary Air Force also placed an order for the Kevorkian-Bogomolov Design Bureau to design a new jet intercepter, which would become the KeB-26. In the end, the KeB-26 was cancelled in 1979 in favour of an interceptor variant of the Lu-37. The original bomber version of the Lu-37, however, was not procured by the TRAF and was a failure on the export market. Instead, the TRAF focused efforts on trying to purchase the Tupolev Tu-22M, which was a proven design. Modern Era In 2010, the Lukov Design Bureau was given permission to enter a joint program with the Russian Sukhoi Company to develop the halted S-54 project. On the 23rd July 2014, the aircraft made its first flight as the Lukov JF-55. Although Sukhoi did not see much of a market for the aircraft, it kept the rights to the design and instead sold the licence for production to Lukov. The two companies also jointly developed the Lukov JF-56, a carrier borne version of the JF-55. Plans for a stealth aircraft had been discussed by the TRAF and Tabi'atstani aircraft design bureaus since the 1990s. However, it was not until the 19th January 2012 that the KeB Design Bureau announced the development of the KeB-33 stealth aircraft design. Structure Write the second section of your page here. List of major design bureaus *Alinejad Design Bureau *Kevorkian-Bogomolov Design Bureau *Lukov Design Bureau *Sharov Helicopter Design Bureau *Tabi'atstan Aeronautics Design Bureau Scientific institutions Production Civil aircraft production Military aircraft *Kevorkian-Bogomolov Ahbod - Stealth UCAV *Kevorkian-Bogomolov Zagh - UCAV *Lukov JF-54 **Lukov JF-55 - Light fighter **Lukov JF-56 - Carrier-borne light fighter *Lukov Lu-32 - Multirole combat aircraft *Lukov Lu-37 - Interceptor/strategic bomber *Lukov Lu-156 - AEW&C aircraft/ASW aircraft *Sharov Sha-18 - Transport helicopter Helicopters Revenue Economic significance Employment See also *Automobile industry in the USSRT *Defence industry of Tabi'atstan Category:Tabi'atstan Category:Economy of Tabi'atstan Category:Military of Tabi'atstan